Attorney General

Serious Fraud Office (Appointment of the Director of the Serious Fraud Office)

Victoria Prentis: I am today announcing the appointment of Nick Ephgrave QPM as the next Director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). Under the Criminal Justice Act 1987, I appoint a person to be the Director of the Serious Fraud Office, who shall discharge their functions under my superintendence. The Prime Minister and Cabinet Secretary have been notified of this appointment. This appointment has been conducted in line with Civil Service guidance and the process has been overseen by a Civil Service Commissioner. Mr Ephgrave will take up the role of Director of the Serious Fraud Office at the end of September 2023.

Ministry of Defence

Update on the Independent Inquiry related to Afghanistan

Mr Ben Wallace: As announced to the House on 15 December 2022, I commissioned The Rt Hon Lord Justice Haddon-Cave to chair an independent statutory inquiry under the 2005 Inquiries Act to investigate and report on alleged unlawful activity by British Armed Forces during deliberate detention operations (DDO) in Afghanistan in the period mid-2010 to mid-2013, and the adequacy of subsequent investigations into such allegations. It is right that the Ministry of Defence continues to balance the requirement to be as open and transparent as possible against national security considerations. The Inquiry are now reaching the stage of substantive hearings, and I can confirm that the allegations relate to the conduct of UK Special Forces. This confirmation is made in the exceptional circumstances of this Inquiry, where the activities of this organisation are the central focus of the inquiry’s investigation, as set out in its Terms of Reference. Outside of this very specific context, such confirmation should not be seen to alter the longstanding position of this Government, and previous Governments, to not comment on the deployment or activities of the UK Special Forces. I remain steadfast in this for the protection of those involved and our national security.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Highly Protected Marine Areas

Dr Thérèse Coffey: Three Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in English waters - North East of Farnes Deep, Allonby Bay and Dolphin Head are formally designated from today, after Lord Benyon signed the designation orders for these sites on 14th June 2023.Since leaving the EU and becoming a fully independent coastal state, we are seizing the opportunity to properly protect our most precious marine areas. Using our new freedoms, we are already in the process of introducing new measures to restrict damaging fishing activity like bottom trawling in offshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) by the end of 2024.Today’s HPMAs will complement the MPA network to introduce even higher levels of protection in our seas. Where in MPAs the marine environment can recover to a good, healthy state through managing harmful activities that damage the designated features, HPMAs will prevent all harmful activity to promote full recovery of the whole site to as natural a state as possible. They will contribute to healthy, sustainable and climate-resilient ecosystems that benefit both the marine environment and our fishing communities. They will give marine life space to fully recover, and evidence suggests that increased numbers or size of species in such protected areas may benefit fisheries overall over time as they spill out into nearby areas beyond the protected areas.Our actions on HPMAs demonstrate the government’s clear commitment to the UK vision for ‘clean, healthy, safe, productive and biologically diverse ocean and seas’; and to our international commitments to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030 under the Global Biodiversity Framework, which the UK spearheaded.These HPMAs have been designated under the Marine and Coastal Access Act (MCAA) 2009, and general duties will apply from today. The next step will be for the Marine Management Organisation to implement specific management measures for fishing and non-licenced activities within the HPMAs. These will be consulted on soon.As announced in the Environment Improvement Plan, we now intend to identify further suitable sites for consultation and potential designation.The designation orders are available to view at Legislation.gov.uk.